NORWEGIAN journalists have been in Luton today following comments about the town by mass killer Anders Behring Breivik.
At his trial for the murder of 77 people last July, Breivik said his actions were to prevent Norway from becoming like Luton, where, he said, conditions were close to “war-like”.
Nilas Johnsen, UK correspondent for Norway’s biggest newspaper, {http://www.vg.no/|Verdens Gang|Click here for the Verdens Gang website}, this morning met Luton News editor Lynn Hughes and news editor Sally-Anne Stewart.
He spoke to them about the trial and visited Bury Park, following Breivik’s comments that the town had “more than 1,000 Islamic no-go zones... where police do not dare pass through”.
Asked for his impressions of Luton, Nilas said: “It’s very clear that Luton is a very multi-cultural town, a place where a lot of Muslims live.
“Quite a lot of them practice their religion conservatively but we are free to walk here in the middle of this so-called ‘Islamic no-go area’.
“I don’t think Breivik has ever been to Luton. He’s taken his opinions from reading English newspapers online and perhaps from talking to extreme organisations like the English Defence League.
“I don’t think either the EDL or Islamist groups are representative of the majority of people in Luton.
“Where Breivik got ‘war-like’ from only he knows.
“I think after the horrendous acts he has committed, people in Norway would be very sceptical of anything Breivik says in court.”
Nilas also shared his experience of what it was like being in Norway at the time of the attacks.
“Everybody, including myself, was sure that this was an Islamic terrorist attack, that is the fear and prejudice we have I suppose.
“I was relieved because I thought if it had been an Islamic organisation it was going to start a hell of a debate in Norway, and it would change society, in a bad way, especially if the attackers had lived in Norway.”
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